Wayward Dreams
by unwinding fantasy
Summary: It was the older guardian's watch, yet Tidus had long outgrown set bedtimes: he stood beside his legend, keeping silent vigil as the last star diminished on the tangerine horizon. [Auron x Tidus][1sentence challenge!fic][Complete]


**Title:** _Wayward Dreams_  
**Author:** unwinding fantasy (formerly Aqua Phoenix1)  
**Disclaimer: **I don't own _Final Fantasy X. _I just like pretending.  
**Rating: **M  
**Author's Note: **This was written for the LJ community "1sentence" using theme set Epsilon. Please excuse the syntax abuse, often changing tenses and fluffiness.

* * *

******#1 -- Motion  
**Muscles rippled beneath sun-smitten skin as his lithe form cut through the water, disturbing the steady rise and fall of the waves; knowing full well he was undeserving, Auron chanced a look.**  
**

******#2 -- Cool**  
It was unfair that Auron could lounge against their cage's bars, calm to the point that he barely seemed to draw breath, while Tidus slowly carved a trench in the floor with his manic pacing.

******#3 -- Young**  
Ferocious, his blade tore a fiery path through the wraith; his actions were met with the mocking _swish _of parted air, and his disgust and shame and _hatred _tumbled from cracked lips in a battle cry -- some memories should be left to gather dust.**  
**

******#4 -- Last  
**It was the older guardian's watch, yet Tidus had long outgrown set bedtimes -- he stood beside his legend, keeping silent vigil as the last star diminished on the tangerine horizon.

******#5 -- Wrong**  
"But I'm _always _wrong!" Tidus moans, "Can't _you_ be wrong for once?"**  
**

******#6 -- Gentle**  
The gentle glow of sun rays lights Auron's heart whenever Tidus smiles, warming him like the slow burn of sake.

******#7 -- One**  
Falling in love with someone who speaks in monosyllables isn't impossible.******  
**

******#8 -- Thousand**  
In retrospect, a thousand years into the future mightn't have been so bad -- at least then, Auron wouldn't be bossing him around.******  
**

******#9 -- King**  
He slinks in sometimes, keeping to doorways, foodstalls or the back row and watches the blitzer turn graceful twists and underwater loop-the-loops, dizzyingly intricate even to his keen eye -- despite himself, he cheers along with the crowd whenever Tidus, Star Player of the Zanarkand Abes, claims the ball.

******#10 -- Learn**  
"Sure you can!" Tidus proclaims and with a leap he grabs Auron by the arm, pulling him into the sphere-pool with an admirable _splash!_ ; when they break the surface again, Auron glowers at the victorious blonde, fearing the effect is marred by the sunglasses that are messily skewed across his flushed face.

******#11 -- Blur**  
The boy hiccoughs -- the world appears misshapen to his watery eyes -- and searches for a crimson coat in the crowd. ******  
**

******#12 -- Wait **  
Tidus is always moving, fluid like the ever-changing sea; Auron is the stone sentinel awaiting his return.

******#13 -- Change**  
"I don't care!" Tidus yelled, desperation lacing his voice, "Nothing's changed -- you'll always be alive for me."******  
**

******#14 -- Command**  
Another sharp hiss of impatience spilled from his mouth and (like clockwork) "You're always telling us what to do!" Tidus whined -- Auron privately added another stroke to his cumulative tally (sixteen so far... and they were only in Guadosalam).

******#15 -- Hold  
**And then the vortex engulfs him -- orange and red and black and nothingness -- and the only thing keeping him together is Auron's grip on him.

******#16 -- Need**  
When his eyes cracked open to greet the morning sunlight it was all Tidus could do to suppress a moan, the aching heat between his legs demanding attention that he dared not give it -- not with the object of his lust prodding at the campfire, bending over in a most unhelpful manner.

******#17 -- Vision**  
When Tidus says, "Can I borrow your sunnies?" the legendary guardian blithely refuses him with, "Old men need their glasses."

******#18 -- Attention**  
He's fifteen -- plenty old enough to know it's rude to stare -- but when Auron's bronze form wanders out of the bathroom attired only in water droplets that teasingly roll along the chiseled planes of his body, Tidus can't help it.**  
**

******#19 -- Soul**  
Tidus springs forward, his sword arcing through the air to catch the fiend across its chest; leaning heavily on his own weapon, a battered Auron watches as his assailant bursts into pyreflies and for a time the pair are mesmerized by the dazzling lightshow -- tiny fragments of soul.******  
**

**#20 -- Picture**  
He didn't intend to snoop, but his rummaging uncovered a drawer brimming with necklaces strewn of macaroni, a collection of shells and sea-smoothed pebbles and pictures, streaks of colour only a child's mind could make sense of -- Auron is engulfed by a wave of guilt, for he knows then that he is no replacement for a mother so loved.

******#21 -- Fool**  
The contempt and rebuke wrapped up in the blunt word is like a sliver of steel, cutting Tidus to the bone -- how can such an archaic insult be so hurtful? ******  
**

******#22 -- Mad**  
His anger had built, peaked at white-hot and started flying -- like a swordsmith he'd honed his rage to a blade of deadly cold -- and some part of him trembled for fear of what he'd do; "You're leaving?" his voice was low and filled with cobwebs and for all his anger, deep down he was just plain _sad._******  
**

******#23 -- Child**  
"The others?" Tidus repeated, waggling his eyebrows as his nimble fingers gave Auron's belt an experimental tug, "Well... at least they'll stop worrying I'm gonna get Yuna pregnant."******  
**

******#24 -- Now**  
"Don't think of what might be, just _do_," Tidus had counselled him and by Bahamut's scales that was exactly what Auron intended to do -- these were the flighty thoughts that raced through his head as he pinned Tidus to the bed, covering the blonde's mouth with his own, weathered hands hungrily skating over his untamed body.******  
**

******#25 -- Shadow**  
The boy had a sniffling nose, awkward limbs and wind touselled hair... not to mention an irritating habit of trailing Auron everywhere as if he were competing with his shadow for attention.

******#26 -- Goodbye**  
Because he feels obliged to return Auron's constant understanding he doesn't say a word when the older guardian passes him by -- there isn't anything left to be said anyway.******  
**

******#27 -- Hide**  
Hurt flashed in Tidus' bright blue eyes as he grabbed the wide collar of Auron's jacket and pulled him downwards with one powerful jerk; "No one can hide forever," he whispered fervently.******  
**

******#28 -- Fortune**  
Gil flies _everywhere_, golden raindrops showering them in wealth, yet as Tidus plunges bodily into the chest and tosses a handful of coins at him ("We're _rich!_") his smile is the greatest gift of all.

******#29 -- Safe**  
Caught in the middle of a thunderstorm would be a frightening position, Tidus mused, if you didn't have an oversized red coat (and its owner) to protect you. ******  
**

******#30 -- Ghost**  
"You're a _ghost?_" ******  
**

******#31 -- Book**  
In the few moments he has to himself, Auron likes to read -- natural world, science, sports... whatever happens to be available (he'd learnt not to be picky) -- Tidus, legs buckling under the weight of the firewood, loudly complains that, "They'd be more useful if we burned them...!" ******  
**

******#32 -- Eye  
**When he is angry, Auron glares -- and if Tidus is lucky he's close enough to make out the chestnut, caramel-speckled starbursts against the solitary mahogany orb, and he swears whoever stole its mate will bleed.******  
**

******#33 -- Never**  
The only time Tidus stole sake left him with a pounding headache, a churning stomach and breath that smelt worse than Shoopuf poop (as Rikku so kindly put it); he promised Auron he'd never do it again.******  
**

******#34 -- Sing**  
Tidus and Rikku sing -- boyish tenor clashing with staccato chirrups -- and Auron threatens to hold both their heads under the Moonflow.******  
**

******#35 -- Sudden**  
He jumps at him suddenly, an ill thought out attack of lips and tongue and roving digits, and for once Auron is glad he's been caught unawares and he's possessed with the wild thought that this creature of sunlight and saltwater and cinnamon belongs to _him_.******  
**

******#36 -- Stop**  
"Stop that!" Auron hissed, utilising his best I-know-a-hundred-different-ways-to-kill-you-with-a-moogle voice, and grinning in a brazen show of insubordination, Tidus swiped at his sunglasses again.******  
**

******#37 -- Time**  
They were together -- the younger stretched out with his arms cushioning his head, peering up at the mulititude of stars scattered across the velveteen sky; the elder sitting against a tree, the _shhhh_ of the sharpening of his katana becoming enveloped in the otherwise companionable silence -- and despite alertness coming in the job description they both lost track of time.******  
**

******#38 -- Wash**  
The blonde's nose crinkles in disgust, "You really stink!" he crows, oblivious to his own after-battle odour.******  
**

******#39 -- Torn**  
His arm leaks red water, bloody droplets congealing around the edges of the cut and although he's not one to be caught off-guard, Auron still startles when a gloveless Tidus kneels to bandage his wound -- the boy's sword roughened fingertips flit along Auron's forearms maddeningly.

******#40 -- History**  
Deftly catching the sphere with one hand, Tidus quirked his eyebrow at the older guardian, "_Another_ history lesson?" he teased.******  
**

******#41 -- Power**  
Auron was by far the stronger one, but Tidus quickly learned that agility and the knack for squirming into hidden places was just as valuable.******  
**

******#42 -- Bother**  
"Why bother?" Tidus shrugs in feigned nonchalance, beautiful eyes downcast, concealed beneath long lashes, "You wouldn't take me seriously anyway."

******#43 -- God  
**"Auron...!" his golden boy breathed, sunny tresses clinging to a sweat-slick face, ocean eyes half-lidded in unutterable ecstasy and although he wasn't religious on principle Auron wanted to scream_ Yevon!_

******#44 -- Wall**  
"If you're gonna act like a brick wall, I'll treat you like one," devilishly, he promptly leaned against Auron, privately noting the fact that walls also did not feel this damn _hot_.******  
**

******#45 -- Naked**  
Scars adorned his body, a map showing the path his life had taken -- Tidus murmured something, making that solitary eye widen, and he marvelled at how _his _words could disarm such a man.

******#46 -- Drive**  
Auron slammed into him, the force of their union jolting polka-dots into the dark corridors of Tidus' mind, their mingled sweat anointing his fresh body -- the desperate rhythm pounded in his skull like a war drum.******  
**

******#47 -- Harm**  
After Tidus' first real kill he watched the Guado tumble into bloody oblivion, a deathcry still on his lips and it was only Auron's strong hand on his shoulder that gave him the strength to keep running.******  
**

******#48 -- Precious**  
When he smiled, his eyes were the brightest shade of blue, like exotic sapphires that sparkled with the sky's reflection.******  
**

******#49 -- Hunger  
**Lying against the dampness of black rock, limbs sprawled haphazardly as he gazed up at the disappearing half-collapsed roof, Tidus tried to take solace in what little heat his pitiable fire exuded but his stomach consistently interrupted with growls -- he hated Auron for dumping him here alone.******  
**

******#50 -- Believe**  
"I believe _you're_ the dream," Tidus wanted to say, but bit back the words because Auron would only laugh -- and that's what eventually made him utter them.


End file.
